Training to Win an Olympic Medal at Speed Skating
Konrad Niedźwiedzki is one of those talented speed skaters who had an early start in speed skating and having a father like Krzysztof Niedźwiedzki, the coach of the female Polish speed skating team, made a big difference. In the 2013 World Single Distance Championships in Sochi, Russia, Konrad Niedźwiedzki won the bronze medal in the men's team pursuit together with Zbigniew Bródka and Jan Szymański. One year later they did it again in Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
In some respects a successful athlete such as Konrad Niedźwiedzki is born to win and an Olympic medal is one of the pinnacles of sporting achievement. So, when we interviewed Konrad we were curious to find out more about his training routine.
Training FOR 20 YEARS
Shall we try a Maths exercise? 33 years old, participated in four Olympic Games, that is roughly 16 years. How old was Konrad when he started training? And please keep in mind that it takes a bit of time to qualify for the big Olympic event. Please take your pencils, a piece of paper and calculate! Or better, watch the following clip.
Training as a full-time job
Instead of asking how many hours do you train per week, the real question to ask an athlete should be how much time do you work per week. After listening to all four Olympians we’ve interviewed for Pets of Champions, you realize that you are not the only one having a full-time job. Plus, they even work on Saturdays!
Training routine ...
Training for an athlete is like a day at work for a normal person. If you only take into consideration the start and the end time. For a speed skater, whatever happens in between those time frames, is up to Konrad Niedźwiedzki to fill in the gaps…
Training during the summer
Before starting Pets of Champions, I was under the impression that winter sport athletes travel all year long to where the cold winter weather is, just to train. An entire new world revealed itself when the Olympians we interviewed explained their summer training routine. Yes, it does make sense, now that I know how it’s done!
Author: Delia Dobritoiu